For the first time in the UK, Vietnamese seedless lychees cost around 480,000-540,000 VND/kg.

If the quality and price of Vietnamese seedless lychees are well received by the UK market, TT Meridian will import about 1 ton of fruit per week in June and July, the lychee season in Vietnam.

Vải không hạt Việt Nam lần đầu có mặt tại Anh. (Nguồn: Cansy's Garden)

Vietnamese seedless lychee is available in the UK for the first time. (Source: Cansy's Garden)

On June 16, the first batch of seedless lychees from Vietnam was introduced to the UK market, becoming the fourth Vietnamese specialty fruit, after Tan Lac red grapefruit, Dien Yen Thuy grapefruit and Cao Phong oranges ( Hoa Binh ), to be officially exported to this demanding market this year.

This batch of seedless lychees was harvested and packaged in Ngoc Lac (Thanh Hoa) on the evening of June 14 and kept cold for 36-48 hours. The shipment completed quarantine procedures at Noi Bai airport and was transported on a direct flight from Hanoi to London of Vietnam Airlines to London on the afternoon of June 15 local time. The goods were then cleared through customs and arrived at TT Meridian's warehouse on the morning of June 16.

The above batch of seedless lychees was grown by Ho Guom-Song Am High-Tech Agriculture Company Limited in Ngoc Lac (Thanh Hoa) and imported to the UK by TT Meridian Company.

Seedless lychee is a variety imported from abroad. When ripe, the lychee is bright red, the flesh is juicy, crispy, and has a rich sweet taste. The advantages of this lychee variety are reduced care, no stem borer, good preservation, and high economic value. Starting from the 4th year, the tree can be harvested.

Mr. Thai Tran, CEO of TT Meridian - a company specializing in distributing lychees and Vietnamese agricultural products in the UK, said that although the retail price of seedless lychees is around 16-18 pounds/kg (about 480,000-540,000 VND) and 3-4 pounds higher than regular lychees, the company still decided to test importing this specialty fruit to assess market demand, after having quality test results showing that the product has the characteristic sweetness of lychees, juicy, crispy flesh and especially is seedless, suitable for British and European consumers.

According to Mr. Thai Tran, the UK is a market that is demanding in terms of agricultural product quality but is also very open to new advances and inventions in agriculture. British consumers are not afraid to try new fruits and fruit varieties, even though the prices may be slightly higher than for conventional varieties.

The director of TT Meridian added that for fresh tropical fruits imported from Vietnam, the company is applying the Just-in-time process (providing the quantity of products according to the time and location requested by the customer) to ensure that the fruits reach consumers while still maintaining their freshness. According to this process, the entire process from the time the products are shipped from the garden in Vietnam to the time they are sold in the UK only lasts 36 hours, including the time for packaging and transportation from Vietnam, customs clearance and distribution to retailers in the UK.

Meeting the requirements under the Just-in-time process is a combined effort of the manufacturer, Ho Guom-Song Am High-Tech Agriculture Company Limited, international shipping partner Viet Brite and importer TT Meridian to carry out the fastest procedures, from sterilization and packaging of products, plant quarantine, transportation and import-export to compliance with technical and commercial requirements in the UK to ensure the products meet the standards for circulation in the market.

According to Mr. Thai Tran, seedless fruits are a consumption trend in developed countries as well as in the world. He recommends that Vietnamese agricultural exporters pay attention to this factor and regularly improve crop varieties to keep up with world trends in the context of advances in science and technology in the agricultural sector that have been helping Vietnam as well as the world to invent and breed many quality fruit varieties.

According to information from Thanh Hoa Province's Electronic Information Portal, Ngoc Lac seedless lychee is produced according to VietGAP and GlobalGAP processes, has organic certification, and meets export standards to Japan, Canada, Europe, etc. Ripe lychee has a bright red color, crispy flesh, a light, sweet taste, the fruit peel does not burn when exposed to sunlight and is easy to preserve.

This is a lychee variety imported from Japan, selected and planted by Ho Guom-Song Am High-Tech Agriculture Company Limited in collaboration with the Agricultural Genetics Institute since 2019 in Ngoc Lac district on an area of about 30 hectares. This is the first year that lychee has been harvested with an estimated yield of over 20 tons. Currently, the company has incubated more than 20,000 lychee seedlings to graft precious lychee varieties and plans to continue to expand in the coming years to meet the demand for high-quality agricultural products both domestically and for export.

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